Best California Wineries to Visit California has thousands of winery tasting rooms, but the 75 here offer new and unforgettable experiences. They're pairing wines with smoked trout, tacos or local cheeses; putting guests in the vineyards on bikes, tractors and six-wheeled army trucks; and pouring tastes of wines you'll never find anywhere else. To make the most of any winery visit, always call a week or two ahead to find out tasting and touring hours and whether you'll need an appointment. By Stephanie Zhang and Megan Krigbaum Megan Krigbaum Instagram Website Megan Krigbaum has been writing about wine for over 15 years, covering bottles, regions, families and restaurants all along the way.Experience: Megan Mowery is an e-commerce writer and editor with five years of experience. She spent three years at Dotdash Meredith Corporation, working in both the digital group and e-commerce shop. She's written shopping articles and content for lifestyle publications including Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure, Shape, and Real Simple. Megan has authored buying guides on a number of kitchen-related topics, from pancake tools to counter organization to decor. She collaborates with the Taste of Home test kitchen to review innovative new products in bakeware and more. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on June 14, 2017 Share Tweet Pin Email California Wineries to Visit Slideshow: Napa Valley Wineries Mendocino Wineries Bay Area Wineries Santa Barbara Wineries Paso Robles Wineries Mendocino Wineries to Visit Breggo Breggo's cottage-like tasting room is surrounded by vineyards—its wraparound porch is a truly over-the-top setting to try the winery's single-vineyard Pinot Noirs. breggo.com Elke Vineyards Mary Elke's Boonville tasting room is in a little red shack. Try minuscule-batch bottlings, older vintages and barrel samples with the winemaker herself. elkevineyards.com Navarro This winery makes some of the best Riesling and Gewürztraminer in the US, in addition to terrific Pinot Noirs. Now one of its winemakers, Sarah Cahn Bennett, is exploring cheesemaking, too, with her Pennyroyal Farm. Buy her exceptional goat cheeses at Navarro. navarrowine.com Bay Area Wineries to Visit Dashe Cellars Mike and Anne Dashe's urban winery in Oakland puts in-cellar tastings and incredible Zinfandel within easy reach of San Francisco—it's a 15-minute BART ride. dashecellars.com Donkey & Goat Jared and Tracey Brandt source grapes from Mendocino and nearby El Dorado county, then they make natural wines in Berkeley using old-school winemaking techniques. The small winery is open to the public only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, but most guests get to taste with the winemakers. donkeyandgoat.com Santa Barbara Wineries to Visit © Kirk Irwin Au Bon Climat Although Jim Clendenen has been making phenomenal wine in Santa Barbara since 1982, he only opened a tasting room two years ago, pouring new releases of all of his wines and a section of older library bottlings. aubonclimat.com Beckmen The owners of Beckmen hope its visitors will stay a while. Outside the tasting room are picnic tables, a quiet duck pond and a new patio where guests can open a bottle of Grenache from the tasting room. beckmenvineyards.com © Kirk Irwin Brewer-Clifton The single-vineyard tasting ($20, including cheese pairings) gives guests the opportunity to taste through six Santa Rita Hills Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. The rotating lineup always includes a couple of older vintages, to give a sense of how both terroir and bottle age play a role in wine. brewerclifton.com Foxen Visitors to Foxen's solar-powered winery and tasting room can try five fantastic single-vineyard Burgundian and Rhône varieties for only $10, then drive up the road to the Foxen 7200 tasting shack and try its Bordeaux varieties. foxenvineyard.com Kunin Winemaker Seth Kunin spends his weekends pouring samples of his Central Coast Zinfandel and Rhône varieties and chatting with visitors in his surf-shack-style spot, less than a block from East Beach. kuninwines.com Loring Wine Company This July, Brian Loring moved his tasting room from the Lompoc Wine Ghetto (an industrial park composed of 19 wineries and tasting rooms) to Buellton, next door to the famed Hitching Post II restaurant. Try a flight of the diverse single-vineyard Pinot Noirs from around the state. Another sensational Pinot Noir maker, Peter Cargasacchi, also shares the tasting bar. loringwinecompany.com Margerum A Santa Barbara wine pioneer, Doug Margerum pours tastes of small-production, Rhône-variety wines that are near impossible to find elsewhere. The space is adjacent to the Wine Cask, a beloved wine shop and restaurant that Margerum founded and co-owns. margerumwinecompany.com Palmina Owned by Steve Clifton (also of Brewer-Clifton winery) and his wife, Chrystal, Palmina is inspired by the couple's love of Italy and Italian varieties grown in Santa Barbara, like Dolcetto and Arneis. Wines are available on tap, so visitors can take samples home in refillable bottles or growlers, as well as olive oil, vinegar and other Italianate products. palminawines.com Qupé Long referred to as the grandfather of the Santa Barbara wine scene, Qupé winemaker Bob Lindquist has been making wine since the late 1970s. He now shares a tasting room in Los Olivos with his son Ethan, creator of Ethan wines. Since both father and son produce wines from Rhône varieties, it's fascinating to compare their styles. qupe.com Sanford An important stop for wine-history buffs, Sanford is one of the oldest wineries in Santa Barbara. Its bi-level tasting room sits smack-dab in the middle of the gorgeous La Rinconada Pinot Noir vineyard. sanfordwinery.com Stolpman Peter Stolpman has two great little tasting rooms: one in downtown Los Olivos, and a newer one in the Lompoc Wine Ghetto, where he makes his spectacular Syrahs. The tasting room is really just a table adjacent to the tanks on the winery floor. stolpmanvineyards.com Paso Robles Wineries to Visit JUSTIN Winery JUSTIN recently overhauled its farmhouse-style tasting room, adding a zinc-topped bar and 1,900 square feet. Plus, there's a new outdoor tasting bar and kitchen where guests can have lunch. The lamb barbacoa tacos are excellent with Justin's full-bodied reds. justinwine.com Tablas Creek Entering the Tablas Creek tasting room feels like stepping into an enormous wine barrel. The space, decorated with a modern wooden sculpture and floored in cork, looks into the cellar where the all-Rhône-variety wines are aged. tablascreek.com By Stephanie Zhang By Megan Krigbaum Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit